Lawrence Memorial Hospital’s Wound Healing Center is one of nine sites chosen to take part in a national study aimed at finding out why some wounds heal and others don’t.

“A lot of underlying medical conditions – like diabetes, venous deficiencies or arterial disease – can lead to chronic wounds. This study will see if there’s a genetic reason as well,” said center director Karily Bayliff. Coordinated by the Comprehensive Wound Center at Ohio State University, the study’s primary focus will be diabetic foot ulcers.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, roughly 60 percent of all foot or leg amputations involve people with diabetes.

The wound center’s participation in the study will begin in mid-January.

“A biopsy sample of wound tissue will be taken from each patient at the first visit and four weeks later,” said Dr. Steve Myrick, who’s overseeing the center’s participation in the study.

“We will also measure the wound at the time of the first biopsy and 12 weeks following the second tissue collection,” Myrick said. Eventually, the data will be divided into healing and non-healing groups and compared by age, wound type and other factors.

Patients are not expected to be inconvenienced by the tissue-taking procedure.

“We’re talking about a very, very small biopsy,” Bayliff said, adding that “every patient will be fully informed” of the study. Participation will be voluntary.

Located at 1112 W. Sixth St., the center opened in 2003.